Is The First Berserker: Khazan now a Souls-like or not? – This is one of the questions that MeinMMO author Ody wanted to pursue while playing. After spending days battling the third boss in the game, he can say with great certainty: The action RPG made him sweat early on like hardly any other game in the genre.

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Since a friend showed me the remaster of Dark Souls on the Switch during a joint vacation a few years ago and I got to play it briefly, I haven’t been able to let go of Souls-likes. One could almost call it fate that the Dark Souls trilogy was on sale on Steam at the same time. In the meantime, I have already spent over 500 hours in Souls games. The time I invested in other FromSoftware titles like Sekiro and Bloodborne, as well as Souls-likes like Nioh 2 and Code Vein, is not even counted in that.

When I started with The First Berserker: Khazan, I thought I shouldn’t have too much trouble with it. There was already a discussion about whether the game qualifies as a Souls-like or if it becomes more of a classic action RPG. However, if the demo of the game sowed the first doubts in me, the finished game completely destroyed that illusion.

A darker but rather utilitarian campaign of vengeance

The dark action RPG shares its universe with the colorful and flashy action MMORPG Dungeon Fighter Online. However, you don’t need to have played it to follow the story. You are Khazan, a powerful general of the Pell Los Empire.

Khazan is falsely accused of treason and narrowly escapes death. He is saved through an alliance with the “Blade Phantom,” which grants him supernatural powers. Thus, strengthened by this demonic alliance, Khazan sets out to take revenge on those who betrayed him – and to become the first berserker.

From the first four missions I played, I can say that the story is well set up. It wouldn’t win an Oscar so far, but it was more than sufficient to motivate me to keep playing. In combination with the anime aesthetics, the design of enemies, and the dark atmosphere, the game repeatedly reminded me of Berserk, the dark fantasy manga by Kentaro Miura. That’s a big plus for me.

You can already get an initial impression of this atmosphere in the intro:

Nioh meets Sekiro, but with some fresh ideas

The gameplay is a mix of various Souls game mechanics.

The First Berserker: Khazan especially reminded me of Nioh and Sekiro while playing. While the game employs Souls mechanics, it aims to be less frustrating. You collect Lacrima through fights, which serves as currency for leveling up, just like souls in Dark Souls or runes in Elden Ring. Upon every death, you leave your unspent Lacrima at the spot, but against bosses, you collect it again at the entrance to their arena.

If you complete certain boss challenges, you receive additional Lacrima for it. It doesn’t matter whether you defeat the boss in that round or not. Even failing progresses your character as long as you do well enough.

When it comes to weapons, Khazan focuses more on class than quantity, as there are only three weapon types: dual blades, greatsword, and spear. For most of the game, I slashed through enemy groups with the greatsword like Guts from Berserk, but each weapon type feels unique and powerful in its own way.

Parrying is everything in Khazan

Although the developers themselves aimed to create an action game and avoid frustration, I must say: On normal difficulty, the game ranks among the toughest challenges I’ve had to press through as a Souls fan.

This high level of difficulty doesn’t always have good reasons: Often while playing, I felt that inputs were not executed as reliably as they should have been. Especially in a game that places high value on parries, it is frustrating when I seem to have pressed the button at the right moment, yet Khazan still takes the hit. And you will not get around parrying enemy attacks in this game. This is partly due to how stamina works:

• Attacking someone or blocking an attack? That costs stamina
  
• Dodging an attack or getting hit? You need stamina for that too.

You only consume stamina when perfectly blocking, meaning a parry. But in large groups of enemies, you can’t parry every attack. Even standard enemies like the dragon-like creatures have long attack chains and appear in larger groups starting from the third level.

The First Berserker: Khazan is also surprisingly merciless when it comes to healing: When you take damage, you heal through items or underworld energy. The latter refills with every rest at the Nexus. However, you can only heal four times at the beginning – even Dark Souls is more generous in that regard. Items that allow you to heal are also quite rare.

Even the third Khazan boss is as tough as a Souls final boss

What The First Berserker: Khazan refers to as “normal” difficulty feels more like an optional hardcore mode: Even with a completely over-leveled character, I took two days before I even saw that the third boss “Viper” has a second phase with a new health bar. At that point, I was level 40, and according to the developers, the area is recommended from level 18.

While you can summon spirits of the advocates for reinforcement against bosses, they often die much too early to really be of use. And don’t even think about facing a boss alone if you haven’t mastered its movement pattern perfectly.

The amount of time I spent on the Viper was similar to my first attempt against Gwyn from the first Dark Souls or the Soul of Cinder from part 3. However, those are the final bosses of their respective games. How could the third boss be so hard, I thought, and first looked for the fault in myself: 

• Have I overlooked any mechanics?
• Can I farm healing items or at least improve my underworld energy?
• Am I just out of practice?

After much frustration, the third boss finally fell

It would have been pretty embarrassing if my test had ended at this point. Especially since this is also my first playtest report ever.

Luckily, my rather low frustration tolerance in such games is balanced out by sheer stubbornness: I kept throwing myself at the boss until I could eventually memorize its attack patterns.

When the Viper finally bit the dust after 3 days, the relief quickly gave way to another thought: Will the rest of the game now be too easy at my high level?

You would think the rest would be a walk in the park – but it wasn’t. And again, The First Berserker: Khazan surprised me by feeling like the hardest Souls-like I have played so far, despite not wanting to be a true Souls-like.

For testing purposes, I also tried the easy difficulty level. It is still challenging but noticeably easier. However, you cannot unlock all achievements there, and once you switch difficulties, you cannot go back with that character.

The First Berserker: Khazan is a game for masochists

The First Berserker: Khazan made me miss Dark Souls 2 during the 20 hours I have played so far, and that’s not meant as a compliment: Its “Scholar of the First Sin” edition is known for being unnecessarily frustrating, and I have angrily uninstalled the game from my hard drive several times.

Nevertheless, I kept crawling back because I simply did not want to give up on the game. Today, I have a strange love-hate relationship with Dark Souls 2: I still hate playing it, but that doesn’t stop me from doing so occasionally and even having fun with it.

The First Berserker: Khazan has the potential to become that kind of game: A game for masochists like me, who push through it out of sheer stubbornness and might come to love it in a few months (or even years). It’s also a game for anyone looking for a true hardcore experience. If you’re not a fan of hard Souls-likes, Khazan might not be for you.

If you have always wanted to dive into a Souls-like with friends, then Nightreign, the spin-off to Elden Ring, might be more to your taste. MeinMMO author Caro was able to try the game at an event. You can get her first impression here: After 8 hours of playtime, I can say: With Nightreign, Elden Ring becomes a completely different game